Who is the greatest rider of all-time



Who is the greatest rider of all-time

  • Bernard Hinault

    Votes: 10 1.0%
  • Fausto Coppi

    Votes: 24 2.5%
  • Francesco Moser

    Votes: 28 2.9%
  • Eddy Merckx

    Votes: 2 0.2%
  • Gino Bartali

    Votes: 604 63.1%
  • Luison Bobet

    Votes: 4 0.4%
  • Felice Gimondi

    Votes: 1 0.1%
  • Rik Van Looy

    Votes: 2 0.2%
  • Lance Armstrong

    Votes: 2 0.2%
  • Miguel Indurain

    Votes: 280 29.3%

  • Total voters
    957
sorry, didnt mean to knock Lance, i meant to knock cyclingexpert and his recollection of the past :)
 
Originally posted by apolack1
sorry, didnt mean to knock Lance, i meant to knock cyclingexpert and his recollection of the past :)

It's cool, of course, cyclingexpert? the name? Ahh, doesn't fit him, he's probably a young buck who doesn't do his studies on cycling history. :rolleyes:

Thomas Davis
 
Originally posted by Kenny
Vote for the best rider of all-time. Every opinion is important.

Write-in vote for Albert Einstein. He wasn't fast nor did he have great endurance but then none of the others came up with the idea for the Theory of Relativity while riding a bike.

Actually, I don't think there is any such thing. It's a bit like asking who the best person of all time is but still makes for an interesting poll/thread.

Just another opinion.

:)
 
Originally posted by ruckscd
merckxx for sure but lets not forget about Lemond

The debate about the greatest rider of all time - I think - is quite subjective.
Take Armstrong for example - to recover from a disease and to go and win what he has won is a great achievement.
Look at LeMond - full of shotgun lead (he almost died) and then he goes and win the w R/R title in Chambery after winning the TDF
that year.

I have to say I have a nagging admiration for the earlier cyclists.
I'm reading a book about the TDF in the earlier 20th century and what these boys did on fixed wheels is something else !
The roads (and I use this description advisedly because they were
little more than dirt tracks), the bikes, the carrying of all spare parts, the prevention of ANY assistance to those rider by Henri
Desgrange, make their exploits legendary.
The number of stages were much less than today - but individual
stages started in the middle of the night and could total as much as 350kms !
1919 TDf totalled 5,560 kms - THATS 2000kms MORE THAN THE 2003 TDF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mind blowing stuff.

Imagine trying to climb the Galibier - and doing so on a fixed wheel, with your spare tyre round your neck, on terrible roads, with
a heavy bike ?
It's just incredible.

OK, I know that a few of them were caught catching trains when they should have been cycling - but for those who did cycle the full
distance were indeed 'convicts of the road'

I would love to see what the likes of Phillippe Thys (TDF winner 1913, 1919,1920),Octave Lapize (1910) and Henri Pelissier (1924)would do under modern conditions.
Alas we will never know !

Happy St.Patricks Day, everyone !
 
Originally posted by Kenny
Vote for the best rider of all-time. Every opinion is important.

Perhaps this is best answered at the end of eternity. The best rider of all time may not have been born yet. If I'm still around, (and probably still on dial-up), I'll give my answer then.

;)
 
Originally posted by limerickman
I have to say I have a nagging admiration for the earlier cyclists. I'm reading a book about the TDF in the earlier 20th century and what these boys did on fixed wheels is something else !

You're quite right. The Tour de France then was the equivalent of bare-knuckle boxing. Memory decays with time consequently we give most respect to modern riders and forget the pioneers. Now technique has developed so much and there's so much sponsorship money that there's much more support services for riders and things are more clear-cut for potential winners. If you read about six-day riding in the 30's you'll see that the riders then were much harder than those now.
 
Originally posted by Michuel
You're quite right. The Tour de France then was the equivalent of bare-knuckle boxing. Memory decays with time consequently we give most respect to modern riders and forget the pioneers. Now technique has developed so much and there's so much sponsorship money that there's much more support services for riders and things are more clear-cut for potential winners. If you read about six-day riding in the 30's you'll see that the riders then were much harder than those now.
Yes, I agree with you - if you consider what Phillipe Thys did
between 1910-1924 : he won the TDF in 1913,1919,1920 :
was placed in the top 10 in the 1912,1910 and 1921 versions.
He fought in the first world war and worked the day job !
If the Tour had been held between 1914-1918, he most certainly would have pick up another 2 Tours perhaps.
He also managed to win one day classics as well !

Put him cycling in todays era.
What feats would he be capable of on a Colnago or Trek Modane ?
What would he think if he was offered money to cycle professionally, all year round ?
The man, in my opinion, is an alltime great (his record of three TDF
wins stood for 35 years).

I admire all of those pioneers, given the conditions upon which they rode.
Given the level of specialisation these days - would Ullrich/Armstrong/Indurain win even one TDF back in the 1900's ?
 
Actually I doubt the authenticity of Phillip Thy's "victories".

I'm not saying he used cocaine or amphetemines or ether or anything, but come on... look at the FACTS.
 
Originally posted by DiabloScott
Actually I doubt the authenticity of Phillip Thy's "victories".

I'm not saying he used cocaine or amphetemines or ether or anything, but come on... look at the FACTS.

Sorry, but could you provide us with some facts about Thys victories ?
 
armstrong? come on, yeah he's great...ONCE a year!

no one can match Merckx's palmares. He won everything, and was always 'on.'
 
Originally posted by OLMO
armstrong? come on, yeah he's great...ONCE a year!

no one can match Merckx's palmares. He won everything, and was always 'on.'

Merckx never rode against such specialized competition.
 
No doubt about the top 3:

1) Merckx
2) Hinault
3) Coppi

after that I would vote for Van Looy and Van Steenbergen
 
Originally posted by jws
No doubt about the top 3:

1) Merckx
2) Hinault
3) Coppi

after that I would vote for Van Looy and Van Steenbergen

I would add Felice Gimondi to that list ;)

and for Classic races only, I'd put Roger de Vlaeminck on number 1
 
i have to go with Merckx.
you can argue all you want about different eras and training and equipment, but no one has ever dominated the sport like Merckx has. while Lance is a phenomenal athlete, he only dominates in one event, and last year he hardly even dominated.
also, one thing that disqualifies Lance from attaining the top spot is that while Merckx could win the Tour and the Giro, he could also win Classics, which i think is a test of true grit. if Lance wants to race Paris-Roubaix or Flanders, then we'll talk. i doubt his handlers would even let him race the cobblestone classics for fear of him getting hurt.
also, on the subject of equipment, Lance has gear (like his Giro TT helmet) that he's paid to be made only for him. while i don't think that's neccesarily unfair, it does present a distinct advantage when every company in the world (from Trek to Shimano) is basing what they make off of what you want.
 
Originally posted by pjodonnell
(Snip...)
also, on the subject of equipment, Lance has gear (like his Giro TT helmet) that he's paid to be made only for him. while i don't think that's neccesarily unfair, it does present a distinct advantage when every company in the world (from Trek to Shimano) is basing what they make off of what you want.

A very small point, hardly worth mentioning; Lance did indeed have the helmet made for himself as you said. He paid for the time at the wind tunnel, paid an aerodynamics engineer and worked with designers to produce the helmet. But last I heard he was letting 5 or 6 other riders use it in competition against him. David Millar is one but I don't have the names of the others.

To pay from your own pocket in order to design something which might give you a slight advantage then allow your competitors to use the same equipment, to me, shows true character.
 

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